It didn’t really come as a shock to marketing experts when it was revealed that the year 2016 was the end of desktop users. More so to the point, it was the year that the number of mobile users vastly overtook the number of desktop users.
The problem lies in the usability of modern websites that aren’t technically created with mobile users in mind, but rather employ the use of responsive web design in order to load on mobile devices. This usually means that mobile users not only sacrifice site usability, but information when they receive a scaled back version of the original site.
What Google Wants In 2017
It’s no surprise that business owners and marketing experts alike focus on mobile SEO and what Google wants. After all, Google is the most prominent search engine in our modern world, and here’s what they’re looking for this year: mobile websites. In fact, their opinions were based on three important factors that marketers shouldn’t overlook:
1. In 2017, significantly more searches are performed using mobile devices than desktop computers.
2. More than half of all mobile users leave a website if it lags and takes more than a few seconds to load.
3. Consumers are five times more likely to take their business elsewhere if your website doesn’t accommodate their mobile devices.
Mobile-First Index Approach
In past years, search engines looked at the usability of desktop sites first before they considered the usability of mobile sites. 2017 is the year when the mobile-first index is actually becoming an integral part of search rankings. It means that search engines are starting to judge your mobile site first before they reward you with a higher ranking in search results.
The usability of your desktop website will still play a role in your rankings, but mobile will now come first. That means if your website isn’t fast to load and doesn’t provide good user experience, your search rankings will suffer.
What does this all mean for businesses? Fortunately, many companies still aren’t aware of the mobile-first index rule, which is why mobile SEO offers you a way to stand out from the competition. Soon enough, everyone’s website is going to become mobile-friendly, which means this loophole will only last so long.
As always, it’s recommended that you hire a professional SEO company. They can help you speed up your marketing campaign and ensure your website is fully functional for the future!